Russia’s inefficient and corrupt state administration is a key impediment to investment – both foreign and domestic – as well as to the government’s ability to implement any of its policies, according to the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation.

Measuring corruption may be difficult, but there is “a widespread consensus that it has been growing in recent years”, the Paris-based think-tank says in its latest economic survey of Russia. Transparency International, the Berlin-based corruption watchdog, also places Russia near the bottom in its corruption perception index, next to Sierra Leone and Nigeria.